PH Foreign Affairs: China threatens status quo

The Philippine Foreign Affairs department slammed China’s move to send it’s sole aircraft carrier to the South China Sea. Foreign Affairs spokesman Raul Hernandez said the move raises tension and violates the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea. Hernandez added, “Its deployment does not contribute to regional stability… Instead it serves to threaten the status quo.” Beijing’s newly commissioned aircraft carrier Liaoning was accompanied by two destroyers and two missile cruisers. The deployment followed China’s recent establishment of an Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) over the East China Sea, an area that contains disputed islands Diaoyu to the Chinese and Senkaku to the Japanese. But President Benigno Aquino III contradicted the Foreign Affairs spokesman. “Why should anybody consider it a threat?” Downplaying the deployment, the President told reporters “Let’s not play it up.” He says it will take up to 3 years for the carrier to run full steam, adding the Chinese are still learning carrier operations. The comments followed a shift in the President’s stance from last year’s hard hitting position that culminated in the Philippines filing a case with an international tribunal.

In a TV interview, Philippine Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario said the ADIZ poses a threat to the Philippines. Del Rosario said he fears China “will control the air space” in the disputed South China Sea. Beijing is requiring all international aircraft passing through the ADIZ to issue a flight plan with the Chinese government – an order that Japan and the US reject.

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